


The Reunification

by HolmesianDeduction



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Dark Days Verse, Gen, Great Hiatus, Post Hiatus, Post Reichenbach, Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-04
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2017-11-09 03:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolmesianDeduction/pseuds/HolmesianDeduction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon reuniting with each other after Sherlock's 3-year disappearance, the Holmes brothers find themselves unusually speechless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Reunification

             It had been almost three years.

             Raising tired eyes, Mycroft Holmes observed his brother quietly, refusing - for once - to break the silence first.  Across from him, Sherlock Holmes did much the same thing.

              _Three years_.

             The three years on the run had taken a surprising toll on the detective.  The hair, chopped short, unruly curls straightened into submission was like a visual slap in the face for the older man, as was the presence of faint, nearly unnoticeable lines in the previously unlined face - lines that would have gone unnoticed by anyone else, but that stood out like cracks in antique marble to the older Holmes.  There was, too, a grim set to the full lips that thinned them out into a pensive line as the long, delicate fingers clenched around the scotch glass as Sherlock Holmes met his brother's gaze.

             There was a time when it was Sherlock who would slip away from home to meet Mycroft at the airport as he flew in and out from trips abroad.  Countless hours were spent in airport lounges, Mycroft with a discreet glass of wine and his case, Sherlock with a tumbler of scotch and, for several years, a falsified identification card.  They would sit in stony silence - silence that to the naked eye looked hostile, but that within the field of static and white noise crackling between them was a full conversation.

             Then the loudspeaker would crackle, and the elder Holmes brother would vanish into the sky, leaving the younger to finish his drink and slink back through security to vent his irritation on what or whoever was unfortunate enough to deliberately engage him.

             Three years ago, however, it had been Mycroft who had watched as his brother disappeared into a haze of grey clouds before slinking away, evading even his bodyguard's detection and stealing away to his private reading room at the library.  It was only there that he allowed himself to feel the full effect of what he knew better than anyone would be a long separation.

             And now they sat across from each other again, glasses in hand, each watching the other expectantly for the breach that would allow conversation, silent or otherwise, to begin.

             It was Mycroft who finally broke the silence, his tongue darting out briefly to moisten suddenly dry lips before speaking, his voice barely audible to the casual listener, but more than adequately loud for the man across from him.  "Welcome back."

             There was a long pause, and the most powerful man in England was not at all that surprised to find that he was holding his breath.  But then the pressed thin lips split into a familiar, crooked, rueful smile, and he felt his entire body relax.

             Sherlock Holmes was home, and more importantly, he was still the man his brother had always known.


End file.
